The attack on the Capitol on January 6 and the subsequent death threats by the same violent actors to punish those GOP members of the House who dared vote for Trump's impeachment reminded me of an incident in the late 1970s when our family was also threatened by terrorists. It takes guts and determination to buck such threats. Burned in the memory of my now middle-aged children and me was the Denver Bomb Squad opening suspicious mail on the picnic table on our back porch for a couple of years in the late 1970 's.
My husband, Dr. Mike Muftic, (1933-2015), was a Democratic National Committeeman in the latter 1970s and was in a position to speak out and be heard in Washington. He was an immigrant from the old Yugoslavia, and within the early 1990s that country would break apart in the bloodiest civil war in Europe since World War II. We had received a visit from the FBI warning us that extreme right-wing Croatian nationalists living in the US were sending out letter bombs to other Croatian immigrants in the US from Yugoslavia in an attempt to force them by fear to support Croatian nationalism and separatism. Croatia was a province in Yugoslavia and Dr. Mike was a Croatian.
Some background: In World War II, a civil war raged in Yugoslavia at the same time parts of this southeastern European country were occupied by Nazi forces. A large number of Yugoslavs joined with the Germans because Hitler promised Croatian nationalists they would gain their long-coveted independence. Tito, a communist terrorist and a guerilla army leader, defeated the German invaders and their cohorts with the help of Britain and the US. Dr. Mike was 12 when the war ended there. His family was decimated and broken up as parts of the family had taken opposing sides in the conflict. In a foreign policy conference in Washington in which Dr. Mike participated, there was a discussion about the future of Yugoslavia, which had already broken from the Soviet orbit in 1948 and had become one of the three leaders of the non-aligned world (Egypt and India, the other two), Dr. Mike had spoken out in the conference for keeping Yugoslavia one country for the sake of peace. He hated war with more passion than anyone I ever knew. He had seen it first hand. He feared the bloodshed that would result in the process of the breakup of the country. Balkan passions in history often turned violent. Sadly his fears were realized in the 1990s. In the wake of that conference, some extreme right-wing Croatian nationalists who had immigrated to the US used terrorist tactics in an attempt to force getting the US Croatian immigrants to support a separate Croatia. Among the terrorist tactics they used were sending letter bombs. US-based Croatian nationalists had succeeded in nearly killing one of their targets in Chicago, which triggered the FBI warning to us in Denver.
The domestic violent extremists attacking the Capitol were kissing cousins of terrorists we knew from our own family experiences. One stated goal of those on January 6, 2021, was to seize the Capitol and overturn the Nov. 3 election by stopping the electoral college vote count and certification that was in progress. It was more than just being disruptive. They had other goals, erecting hangman noose to punish VP Pence they thought was not loyal enough to Trump, searching Nancy Pelosi with handcuff ties on the ready for God knows what and leaving pipe bombs and IEDs ready to kill and maim. Their goal now is to discourage any GOP Senators who dared to vote to convict Trump in the impeachment process using death threats and harassment. They plan a show in the 50 state capitols in advance of the inauguration on January 20. They were the same ilk who Trump had given the blessing for the insurrection on January 6 in an address to them "to fight like hell" and march to the Capitol. They were the same who had stormed the Michigan capitol and hatched a plan to kill the governor. Trump had called them patriots. There were the same who marched in Charlottesville and Trump had called them fine people. He "loved them," he said as he asked them to go home hours after they had already vandalized and terrorized the Capitol. I salute the brave members of the GOP who voted for impeachment now and are enduring the terrorist threats. I have no respect for the GOP members who supported the big lie about the outcome of the presidential election. They were the willing dupes, the fearful, and the craven who in effect helped give cover to the "stop the steal" slogan chanted by the rioters. This is in the face of over 50 court cases that found no evidence of a " steal". Fear is a powerful weapon and it takes guts to stand on principle. It will take guts for GOP Senators to face down the threats. It takes guts to stand up to the terrorist threats in the face of their constituents who had swallowed the big lie that Donald Trump had won the presidency in November. The future of the US depends on the fortitude of those who vote for the conviction of Trump to send a signal their kind will not rule the US nor will he have a chance to run for political office again and incite sedition from a public podium.
There are domestic terrorists in our small town communities as well. After Capitol Riot, Local Law Enforcement Grapple With Extremists In Their Backyards | Colorado Public Radio (cpr.org)
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